Facebook has announced that it is adding a new feature which will allow its 900 million members to share their organ donation status with friends and family.

It will also link to state databases where people in the USA can register online to officially become organ donors themselves.

USA Today asked John Green, community relations director for the Gift of Life Donor Program in Philadelphia, what he thought about the new Facebook feature. This is great news. It has the potential to be one of the biggest campaigns to increase donor designation that we’ve ever seen,” said Green.

Julia Rivera, director of communications for the New York Organ Donor Network, added, “It’s absolutely critical at this time when online communication and social media are really the way people are communicating.”

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg has said the organ donation initiative was inspired by disasters like last year’s earthquake/tsunami in Japan and Facebook’s role in keeping people connected.

Zuckerberg added that his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, influenced the decision, “Our dinner conversations are often about Facebook and kids, and the kids that she’s meeting,” he said. “She’ll see them getting sicker, then, all of a sudden, an organ becomes available, and she comes home and her face is all lit up because someone’s life is going to be better because of this.”

What do you think of Facebook’s new organ donation feature? Let us know in the comments.